Karachi, September 12, 2019 (PPI-OT): Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Thursday asked the ruling parties in province and center to stop point-scoring on Karachi and give it the status of a Charter City, which this great megacity rightly deserves.

In a statement, he said all three ruling parties in the central and Sindh governments – PTI, MQM-P and PPP- are not sincere with Karachi and its residents. These parties have always fooled Karachiites and betrayed them after getting their vote on catchy slogans. He said the new puppet show drama being run by federal law minister Farog Naseem in the name of Article 148/4 is yet another fraud with the Karachiites. He said slapping a governor rule or giving Karachi under control of the federal government is no solution to the real issues of Karachi. The only and sustainable solution to issues of the megacity is to give Karachi status of a Charter City, so that it could run its affairs efficiently on self-sustaining basis instead of holding begging bowl before the Sindh government or the federal government.

He said the PPP and MQM-P are responsible for dysfunctional governance and destruction of civic infrastructure in Karachi, as they recruited their loyal political cadres in civic service institutes of Karachi like KMC, KDA and KWSB on wholesale basis, violating every sort of merit and rule. “Now these same parties are shedding crocodile’s tears for Karachi.”

He said the ruling PTI also plainly betrayed the megacity and proved that it was only interested to make a coalition central government with the help Karachi votes, instead of serving the megacity and its people. He said the so-called Karachi strategic committee is another farce with Karachi and it is nothing but a political stunt to muster popular support in coming local government elections.

Altaf Shakoor said the PDP would launch a massive drive for Charter City status to Karachi. He said we strongly reject quota system and unholy nexus of ‘political Waderas and dons’ of rural and urban areas who have already mercilessly looted and plundered Karachi and made it a crippled and dysfunctional city during their PPP-MQM coalition government in Sindh province.

He asked the Prime Minister, Imran Khan, to consult with the real representatives of Karachi to get first-hand knowledge about the pressing issues of Karachi like water shortage, collapsed gutter system and outdated public transportation system. He said Karachi needs a huge state investment in social and civic infrastructure and it could be only possible when the megacity gets the status of a Charter City. He said both PTI and MQM-P are now in power and if they are really sincere with Karachi they should bring a joint constitutional amendment bill in Parliament to give Karachi constitutional status of a Charter City.